Randall No. 1 in 3-4A

Sunday

It was a new district, stretching about 170 miles from north to south, including eight schools in six counties.

But to find the two best sports schools in District 3-4A for the 2010-11 school year, you need look no further than Randall County.

According to a points system devised by the Amarillo Globe-News, not even a half-point separated Randall and Canyon.

Randall scored 158.8 points, while Canyon had 158.5 in the Amarillo Globe-News rankings of 3-4A schools.

The mythical title was decided the weekend of the state track meet, but track wasn't the biggest sport in determining Randall's victory.

While it certainly helped that Randall's Logan Brittain won the state championship in the boys high jump on Friday afternoon, it wasn't until the next day, when Randall's baseball and softball teams advanced in the playoffs, that the final result was resolved.

It wasn't as if Canyon blew it on that weekend.

In fact, with Michael Stigler bringing home two state titles in boys hurdle events, and Arin Rice winning gold in the girls 800 meters at the state track meet, that made every point Randall scored in every sport during the mid-May weekend all the more important.

Frenship was third with 152 points. Plainview finished fourth with 87 points. Fifth through seventh place, meanwhile, were only separated by four points.

Dumas was fifth with 70 points, followed by Hereford in sixth with 68.3 and Palo Duro was seventh with 66.

Finishing eighth was Caprock with 32.3 points.

Points were awarded from top to bottom in the district on a 15-12-10-8-6-4-2-0 basis, giving weight to the final district standings.

Some ties in the final standings resulted in splitting points in half, and in the case of football, resulted in three-tenths of a point.

By the way, getting a three-way share of the district title in football earned Randall 12.3 points, .3 points more than the Raiders would have been awarded for a second place finish.

Here is a breakdown of how each school performed this past year.

n 1. Randall (158.8 points): Randall won or shared five district titles and scored in double digits in 10 of the district's 13 sanctioned UIL sports. The Raiders avoided anything lower than a sixth place finish in any sport. Randall's best performance came in volleyball, where the Lady Raiders reached the region finals and scored 19 points. Brittain scored two bonus points with region and state championships in track, while Karlee Kleiber brought home a state title in girls cross country.

n 2. Canyon (158.5): The fall and winter seasons were vintage for Canyon, which swept the boys and girls cross country district titles, along with winning team tennis. The best season came from the girls basketball team, which went undefeated and won the state title, racking up 22 points, the most for any district school in a girls sport. Canyon won or shared five district titles and also won a region title in girls cross country, as Rice also won the meet's individual championship.

n 3. Frenship (152): Frenship only won or shared two district titles, but a remarkable spring season, in which the Tigers scored in double digits in five of six sports, put some heat on CISD schools. The school was especially dominant in boys and girls golf, scoring over a quarter of its total points for the year on the links. Frenship not only won the boys district golf title (along with the region title), but its 'B' team finished third in district.

n 4. Plainview (87): The school didn't win or share a single district title or score any individual bonus points. However, Plainview had its usual outstanding season in girls basketball, finishing second to Canyon and totaling 16 points before losing to the Lady Eagles in overtime of the region finals. Plainview also finished second in boys golf.

n 5. Dumas (70): Dumas also didn't take home a district title, as the best finishes for the Demons were second place in volleyball and third in team tennis in the fall. Alexi Davis scored a bonus point in girls track by winning the region title in the discus.

n 6. Hereford (68.3): Hereford's title was a share of the football crown. The only other sport in which the Herd scored in double digits was a third-place finish in girls cross country.

n 7. Palo Duro (66): Palo Duro won district titles in boys basketball and boys track and also scored in double digits in girls track. The Dons scored no individual bonus points in any sport.

n 8. Caprock (32.3): Caprock started the year well, winning a share of the district football title and its first playoff trip since 1975. But Caprock was no better than fifth in any other sport.

NOTE: Since not all the schools participated in soccer, wrestling, or swimming, those sports were not taken into account in the scoring. This particularly hurt Caprock, which won state team and individual titles in girls wrestling and a district title in District 5-4A boys soccer.

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